Hey! new story coming at you. I sorta quit my other ones because there was no real inspiration. So now I'm doing a sort of biography of myself, with kairi instead of me. funfunfun. please r&r!

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What happens when you cross 2 models in a big time city with big time dreams and no regrets? You find yourself leaving behind everything that you know and breaking boundries far more dangerous than the ones you grew up with. This is my story.

"He has a rare form of lung cancer. We believe the cause was second-hand smoking," the drab lab suit wearing doctor told me, his face blank. I felt myself beginning to shake violently. No, this couldn't be happening! No. It wasn't. He couldn't have lung cancer. Mom smoked a lot sure, but no! HE DIDN'T DESERVE THIS! I didn't deserve this.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

"AHH SHIT! I'm gonna be late..I'm gonna be late…. I'm gonna fail my final and get beaten to death and kicked out of the house and be roaming the streets as a hopeless prostitute for the rest of my life! ARH!" I ran around my room frantically, throwing the first shirt/pants/bra/flip flops I could find onto my tall skinny body, and grabbed my hair clip while dashing into the bathroom. Mascara, moisturizer, toothpaste, deodorant, done. Skipping down the stairs three at a time, I sprinted out the door of my 2 story house in record time.

Today was finals. The very finals for junior year in the nasty, skank infested high school I had been prisoner to for three years of my life. Hallelujah. Skipping the run down car in the driveway, I took huge strides down the cracked sidewalk, which would get me to the school in half the time. The condo covered lawn came into view eventually and I sprinted over it into the deserted hallways of Bastion High. I came to a skidded stop in my first final, Social Sciences.

"Just on time, Kairi. Take your seat." I sat down in my graffiti engraved desk and the teacher passed out the test.

"FINALLY!" Yuffie cheered as we stepped out of AP Chemistry, the last final. "FREEDOM!" Yuffie, my spunky, athletic friend with short raven hair did a mini jig in the hallway as other students stared. They should be used to her daily dances by now, sheesh. We walked slowly down the hallway, and I nodded or smiled my fake smile to people I knew as we passed.

"I say we go for some ice cream, my treat," Yuffie said with a grin. "Ummm no thanks, sorry. I have to get home to start packing for my trip to Barbados. I'm leaving tomorrow," I said regretfully. Being gone for four weeks in some foreign country without my best friend was going to kill me.

"Awwww," Yuffie pouted. "Well that's ok. We can hang out afterwards, k?" I nodded. "See ya later!" I waved goodbye and ran out of the school. Finally, that year was over. I walked leisurely down the beach streets towards my shack of a house. It was one of the smallest ones in the town of Destiny, but that's probably because my parents didn't work worth shit. So screw them. Yeah, I pretty much hate my parents. My dad was a liar and wanted for fraud on his taxes, and he had abandoned me and my mom when I was 12 to go live with his rich girlfriend in North Destiny, the upstate version of our little town. But she's really old and boring, so it works out pretty good. Not like I wanted him around hitting me all yelling like the drunk fool he was all the time anyway.

That brings me to my mother. Hard worker I guess I would call her, mainly because if she heard me calling her anything but mother of the year, she would rant about all the things that I did wrong, and how I was more of a failure than she was. Then she would go cry. Emotional much? So I guess neither of my parents were ever really there for me. They both just thought about themselves. So it was up to me to take care of myself all my childhood, making me one independent and persistent kid.

I pulled the front door open, and slipped off my shoes. "I'm home.." I said to my empty house. Just in case my cats were expecting me or something. I grabbed an energy bar and trudged up the stairs to my bedroom. I was leaving for Barbados tomorrow for my mission trip with the church, and I had some serious packing to do.

Four hours later and I was STILL packing. Music blasted throughout the house from my stereo.

"Strike up the band
Oh, the conductor is beckoning
Come, congregation, and let's sing it like you mean it
No, don't you get it, don't you get it?
Now don't you, don't you moveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

I sang enthusiastically to the music, bobbing my head and dancing around as I threw things in my suitcase in a flourish.

"Just stay where I can see you
Douse the lights
We sure are in for a show tonight
Just stay where I can see you
Douse the lights
We sure are in for a show tonight
Stay where I can see you
Douse the lights"

"SHUT UPPPPPPPPPPP!" Came a loud voice outside of my bedroom, complete with a rapid banging on the door. "Go away! I'm packing!" I shouted back at my older brother, Squall.

"Strike up the band
Oh, the conductor is beckoning"

"How about you buy some headphones and save us all!"

"Come, congregation, and let's sing it like you mean it"

"Why don't you just GO DEAF!"

"No, don't you get it, don't you get it?
Now don't you move"

"TURN IT DOWN!"

"GO SUCK YOUR BOYFRIEND!"

"Strike up the band
Oh, the conductor is beckoning"

Squall burst through the bedroom door and grabbed me by my legs, hoisting me onto his strong shoulders, ignoring my screams and laugh of surprise, and dropped me onto my bed. He then flipped the switch on the stereo, and the music silenced. I pouted as I sat in defeat on my bed.

"No fair. I wouldn't make you turn your music off if you were leaving tomorrow for a long trip!" I exclaimed. Squall huffed. "You wouldn't be able to, sucker," he shot back, and ruffled my hair. I swatted his hand away. I stood up and walked over to my huge duffle, and kicked it, before pulling on a sweatshirt.

"I'm going for a walk, I need a break," I said as I slipped on my sandals. "I'll come," Squall offered. I scrunched up my nose in a mock frown, and walked out of my door. We left the house without a word to my mother, who was on the telephone. She wouldn't care anyway.

Growing up, Squall was pretty much all I had. We were close, closer than a normal brother and sister, more like best friends. We shared everything with each other, from dates to drama to deep secrets. Squall had taken care of me since we were really little, and always came around when I needed him. Oh sure we had our rough spots, but as we got older, we simply got closer.

Squall was a sophomore at the art school on the main island, and he stilled lived with us, for my sanity more than his. Both of our parents had disapproved of his career choice, well actually my dad didn't really care… but my mom was livid. She wanted a doctor, or a lawyer as most parents seem to, and art was just not good enough for her. Squall was a kick ass photographer though, whether she liked it or not. His favorite prop was me, and we would often spend weekends going to exotic places on the island, where he would photograph me doing something random, and make amazing collages and stuff from it.

"Hey, dad called me today," Squall said, breaking the silence. "Oh? What did he want?" I asked sourly. "He wants to see you and me again. Apparently he wants to 'mend our relationship'" He said, with those little finger quotes around "mend our relationship". I snorted, "What? He hates us. Whatever. You can 'mend your relationship' all you want, but I'm going to let ours stay 'non-mended' thanks".

Squall sighed. "Oh come on Kairi. I know you hate him but maybe this time he really does care. You never know.."

"Yeah, sure. If he cares so much, why did he forget my 17th birthday last week? Why do I never get cards or anything from him at all? He's just doing it to seem like the world's 'number one dad' or whatever. I don't care to help him." I kicked a rock on the pavement to emphasize my point.

"Fine. Well I'm going to go talk to him this weekend after you leave. I'll call you to let you know how it goes, ok?" See, this was one thing I really liked about Squall. He always informed me on everything, and never made me feel left out. He really seemed to care what I thought of everything he did, which I kind of really liked. I nodded, and pulled him off the main road towards the beach. We sat down on the warm sand, and watched the sun set slowly.

"Hey Kairi?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me that you will always keep in touch with me, when we get separated because of our hectic lives. I need to keep tabs on my little sis," Squall said. I looked at him with a bemused expression on my face. "You sound like the mom I never had," I said, grinning.

"Hey!" Squall laughed, and shoved me a little, "But promise me okay?"

"I promise."

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I sank down into the hospital chair hopelessly. How could we ever pay for this? How would we manage? This was just a great way to start the summer that I had left from getting back from Barbados. The day I had gotten back, I found a note on the kitchen counter. It read:

Kairi,

I'm taking your brother to the hospital. He's been complaining of severe chest pain. Come down when you get home.

Mom.

I hurried to the hospital as quick as I could, and found my mom in the waiting room.

"They're checking him out for lung cancer," she said with a grim look on her face. And now their suspicions had been confirmed. His cancer was so severe they needed to begin treatment immediately, requiring money that we didn't have. There was no way I was going to let Squall die though. I would do what I could so he could get his treatment.